Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-02-03

FER namei Honeysuckiesi but your
looking pale. but Sticks 'er''-but
John Earring had gone. and Julius
jerked his glasses from his nose and
giared after him and squealed: THE
dickens! my, he didn't speak to me-
and presently bObbed on down the
/ street. unconscious that he had not
given the young man chance.
At the office of Bower x Woodman
John Earring was warmly received.
Judge Bower was very hearty with
/ him indeed. After conversing a mo-
ment he said: Il presume Your trip re-
lated to carrying out the intention you
once told me OF regarding the mystery
of your fathers death?"
Yes. sir; it was almost entirely for
that
Were you successfully
ENTIRELY so; and yet it remains 4
secret"
'.Ah. indeed, Well. I have piece
OF news for YOU which is not. Wood
man is dead and has left Won his il
brary and property.
/ john Earring sprang up, looking in 3
daZed. curious way 1t the other face
Me-" he said; ''what-why did he
leave them TO me?'
The Judge smiled, softly. The will
] SAYS simply because he is honest and
for other reasons. Woodman was
deep. kind Of devil-angel.
! john Earring sat down; his hands
/ trem bled: would fortune and misfort-
une ever cease TO shock together over
! his head? When did he die?n he
/ faltered.
] In April.
L wish 1 had been here: it might
! have been prevented"
| What prevented"
! 'His bequeathing me the property"
! why, don { YOU want it?'
NO" and he shook his head. star
! ing mistily at the floor: Its not mine;
/ [ never earned it 1t must go to those
| who need it.
| Judge Bower looked long and in
| credulously at the young man averted
/ face. Well he sighed at last. Il
| guess old Woodman didn' t misiudge
| YOU"
The young man continued gazing at
the floor; after awhile he looked up.
IT II keep the library for his sake, ne
said 1.-The other was not earned by
me at all, or much of it fairly by him.
! shouldn't like TO use it.
Judge Bower sighed again and
moved about in his chair
Il don't need it, said John Earring,
half pleadingly; L can not IN any
manner make out that it is mine rs |
conceive of ownership. and as I see it,
| it really belongs to the people from
whom it came, and [ shall surely try
70 get it back into their hands. at least
into the hands of those who need ii.
The Judges heart might have been
broken from the sigh he fetched.
John Earring got up. took off his
coat, and sat down at his desk. I
want TO go to work" he said. in a
mournfuj tired wav. i will promise
TO be social and civil in a day or two.
I want TO find myself or lose myself. or
something of the kind. with a mirth-
less smile, Il have about lost my senses
idling so much.
Yes. you'd best get to work. said
the Judge. with 4 bitter laugh. You
are not far from being as mad rs old
Woodman. himself" and he sighed.
John Earrings head, and eIoquence!
and property. how they would boom
the firm We're he only d little harder!
and he sighed again. What an oppor-
tunity. what 4 chance to take fortune
at the food, and he sighed once more.
II was IKE -Donn Earring 10 yet III
once TO work; it was the ntuitive Amer
lean way Of numbing trouble; but he
could not beat back or tie and east out
the biting abysmal thoughts Ct Celeste
that crowded into his mind.
The next dav he went OUT to the still
Enclosure east of the town. and. passing
among the oaks and evergreens. came
where the earth had been wounded by
the making OF two graves. the darkest
wounds earth ever gets. One was
healing over. the other was fresh. He
could not keep dry eyes or his heart
from guivering at sight of these What
2 flight of recOllectIOnS went over him!
The two living at the soundless bottom
Of these wounds had loved him: with
all their StrangeneSs. crudlty and
faults. had been his best friends. His
feelings were soft. a thing for gratuia-
ton. and he gave them honest tears;
he could not give them more; they had
gone beyond him. But when he came
out from the shady sacred place he
stopped and took a notebook from
his pocket: the check the old lawyer
gave him was there. and when another
month had gone by a giistening shaft of
marble lifted its white urn above their
sleeping-place
He came back sOrrOwfuuE enough
from the graves that day, and. stop
ping, entered the house where the Old
LAWYER had lived. The house-woman.
BY the dead masters instructions. had
kept it waiting for him. II shook him
not a little to stand alone in that long,
smoky room where the rugged. fiery
old heart that loved him had ceased rG
beat He did not 20 into the othet
rooms. the rooms where Maun had set
his blood to quicker movement Tho
woman's life had not matched his; he
knew it now. Her swaying grace had
passed into beauteOus memory. which
to him was as the swaying boughs OF
trees beside the rvthm of that other
soul. which. like star out of the back
ward streaming darkness had con-
verged upon his own and won it.
The next day he saw the will. that
strange. laconic instrument OF she old
lawyer making. 4 streak of caustic
humor ran through it not unlike sour
honey Judge Bower, despite his
signs at the thought of bow little the
legatee would profit from it. smiled at
his old partners dying gfbes. Then
he told John Earring how he had been
with their old friend IN his last hour